The 2017 Big East Basketball Tournament begins Wednesday, March 8 and runs through Saturday, March 11 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Six of the league’s 10 teams have byes until Thursday, including Villanova, the defending NCAA Tournament champions.

Georgetown-St. John’s and Depaul-Xavier start the action on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET. Thursday games begin at noon ET and the final contest starts at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Villanova is the odds-on favorite in the 2017 Big East Basketball Tournament and despite winning the national title last season, will look to avenge a loss to Seton Hall in the finals of last year’s conference tournament. The Wildcats have just three losses all season but two are to No. 2 seed Butler.

Here’s everything you need to know about the 2017 Big East Basketball Tournament — from the full schedule, TV channels and the complete bracket.

2017 Big East Basketball preview

Villanova is the No. 2 team in the country, per KenPom.com, and has the best player in senior Josh Hart. The Wildcats’ offense ranks No. 3 in efficiency and has the sixth-best effective field goal percentage at 57.7 percent. They also shoot free throws at 79.8 percent, the second-best mark in the country.

But Butler poses the biggest threat to the defending national champions in this tournament, based on regular season results. The Bulldogs beat Villanova twice, by eight points each time.

Butler went 23-7 this season and rank No. 23 in overall efficiency, per KenPom. But the Bulldogs had some demons of their own, losing twice to Creighton and once each to Georgetown and St. John’s, two of the three bottom seeds in the tournament.

Creighton is one of the best shooting teams in the country, posting a terrific 58.5 effective field goal percentage, second best in the country. They hit 40.5 percent of their 3-point shots, the eighth-best mark in the nation.

Pick: It’s impossible to pick against Villanova, a veteran team that’s firing on all cylinders right now, but there’s little value at that price of -130. The Wildcats shouldn’t have much trouble besting this field and getting by Butler, who has its number this year.